Mayor and EEDC Announce Completion of One Mile State of the Art Public Wi-Fi Solution

Mesh 802.11ac Outdoor Wi-Fi Solution for Downtown Englewood in what is believed to be a first in the Nation for a public Wi-Fi system

Mayor Frank Huttle III together with The Englewood Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) is excited to announce that a one-mile stretch of Englewood’s bustling downtown area has been blanketed with state of the art high-speed public Wi-Fi. Englewood is believed to be the first municipality in the country to benefit from ultra fast large-scale 802.11ac public Wi-Fi, allowing client device speeds to burst up to 100Mbps over fiber optic Internet bandwidth provided by the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood’s largest workplace with over 2,400 employees.

The response to the activation of the outdoor, public network has been immediate and positive. “We turned on the Wi-Fi network and within the first few days, even before we made any announcement, we’ve had over 1,100 unique devices connect to and use the new Wi-Fi,” Adam Brown, Chairman of the Englewood Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) said.

Mayor Frank Huttle III echoed the excitement at the historic activation and the public’s immediate support. “Englewood’s downtown is open for business. The EEDC and its Chairman Adam Brown have led the way in making the downtown experience more user and consumer friendly. That helps business, the downtown and Englewood as a whole,” the Mayor stated. He continued, “In a time when the downtown experience must compete with many other retail settings, like shopping malls, the EEDC has added yet another feature that will draw people in and have them stay. By being a technology leader in providing super high speed Wi-Fi to the City's downtown, Englewood will enhance the outdoor shopping experience.”

On the technology front, Massachusetts-based ackrion, Inc. and its team had led the way in building the Wi-Fi network from scratch and to meet the Englewood downtown’s specific needs. The cloud-based network is unique in many ways, including the fact that it utilizes the brand-new 802.11ac standard for its ultrafast serial backhaul, allowing the entire network to operate using a single fiber optic Internet line. Both legacy client devices and modern client devices experience an unparalleled level of public Wi-Fi bandwidth through multi radio a4001 node access points provided by ackrion.

ackrion CEO Pat Hannon has said “This is an exciting time for ackrion as we’ve gotten a chance to showcase the many unique and superior features of our extremely fast and versatile outdoor Wi-Fi products. Englewood has capacity now and for the future utilizing 802.11ac throughout the spinal cord of the Wi-Fi network as well as independent 3x3 MIMO 802.11ac radios for modern client devices.”

The entire complex, multistage project from the idea stage to the unveiling of a useable system that could accommodate all of Englewood’s downtown, was part of a unique confluence of interests brought together through coordination of the EEDC. “This was a project that from an idea stage was quite simple – bring high speed Wi-Fi to Englewood. As with any large scale public improvement project, when we tried to make the rubber meet the road, it became quite complex,” Chairman Brown emphasized. “We had a great contractor, ackrion, that put in a heroic effort but we also have buy-in from all parts of Englewood’s community. These include Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and its consultants at Fusion, as well as Englewood-based enterprises such as the Bergen Performing Arts Center, TREECO and NVE Bank who have provided key antenna locations. I believe that this project and the broad partnership between businesses, NGOs and the EEDC can and will be a prototype for future improvements in the City’s commercial sector,” Brown concluded.

Mayor Huttle, who was elected to office in 2009, had promised to revitalize the City’s downtown and make it an engine for Englewood’s larger recovery after the Great Recession. “I am proud to see Wi-Fi downtown as another step forward for the City. Residents, shoppers and visitors old and young can come to Englewood sit wherever they want in our beautiful downtown and access the entire world from a table at Starbucks or a shady bench in Depot Square Park,” the Mayor stated.

About the Englewood Economic Development Corporation

The mission of the Englewood Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) is to attract, retain and grow businesses and jobs in the City of Englewood. To fulfill its mission, the Corporation collaborates with public officials, residents and the business community of the City of Englewood in developing and executing strategic plans focused on improving the City's economic base and enhancing its business environment.

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center provides the highest level of compassionate, patient care and safety through a broad range of advanced clinical programs, treatments and diagnostic services. It is renowned for its bloodless medicine and surgery program, cardiac and vascular programs and its leadership in breast care, oncology and joint replacement services. Through its affiliation with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Consortium for Graduate Medical Education, this acute-care and community teaching hospital trains medical residents in many disciplines, including internal medicine, critical care medicine, surgery, pediatrics, podiatry, and pathology. Its Vascular Fellowship Program has trained a generation of world-class vascular surgeons. Additionally, many members of Englewood Hospital’s medical staff serve as faculty at Mount Sinai. Englewood Hospital has earned numerous accreditations from the Joint Commission and other organizations and is among the six-percent of hospitals nationwide honored with the prestigious Magnet nursing award, a distinction that has been earned three times by its nursing staff.